Bertrand Gosselin began his career at Rail Europe España, helping to create a direct distribution subsidiary of the SNCF in Madrid (1992-1994). He then joined the Main Lines TGV Department where he piloted the pricing of the TGVs between Brussels and French destinations outside of Paris (1997-1999).

Being a specialist in intermodality, he led the development of synergies within the SNCF group between Transilien, TER, Effia and Keolis, before being appointed as head of the office of the Director of the Public Transport branch (2001-2005).

Bertrand Gosselin defined the SNCF Ile-de-France Transilien offer as Director of Marketing and Services from 2010 to 2012, during which time he launched the first mobility assistance application for the whole of the Ile-de-France region and developed the Twitter accounts of the various lines.

A true expert in daily mobility, Bertrand Gosselin has been managing the daily commute of 540 000 Ile-de-France passengers on the 187 km of the "RER C" which connects 84 stops across 7 French departments in and around Paris from 2012 till 2018.

In 2018 he reconnected with the international travel business as CEO of Thalys. When the global pandemic hit in 2020, Bertrand Gosselin successfully led Thalys through the worst crisis in its 25-year history.

Why leadership matters

My first-hand experience with the railway accident of Bretigny in France had a major impact on my thinking about safety culture and safety leadership. When I joined Thalys the need emerged to foster safety leadership to shape the company’s positive safety culture. Signing the safety culture declaration and enrolling my executive committee in the pilot of the ERA leadership training were the first steps to help my management to take ownership of that safety culture. The initiative continued to develop during the covid crisis and remains key for the future of the organisation.